The Funky Chicken Coop Tour is Saturday!

It's that time again! Check out the FREE and very interesting Funky Chicken Coop Tour of Austin, held all over Austin on the Saturday before Easter.  It's self-guided so see a couple in your area or travel around to all of it.  We went last year and the year before - it's always great!

Gardening on the Kitchen Counter: Sprouts in a Glass Jar

We were at the garden shop this weekend and I saw a display of sprout seeds and sprouting trays. I love sprouts - alfalfa but also the spicy blends. I had a vague recollection that you didn't really need special equipment so I got a pack of seeds and came home and googled - there are lots of sources but they all say about the same thing: just grow them in a jar on the counter!   It was supposed to be extremely easy, and so it was.

My tablespoon of seeds turned into three cups of sprouts after they were fluffed.  They are nice and crisp and tasty.  I started with alfalfa but plan to see if my grocery store has the seeds in bulk so I can do radish or rocket - YUM.  There wasn't much to it and it was fun to see them change and grow so quickly.  The kids liked it too.  No delayed gratification - this is my kind of gardening!

Here is the method:

Use a glass jar, about a quart size, a piece of cheesecloth or nylon stocking (like pantyhose), and a rubber band or jar ring.  Keep the jar on the countertop (it shouldn't be warmer than about 80 degrees though).  It doesn't need light while soaking or growing.

1. Add about 1 T sprouts to the jar.  Put the cheesecloth or nylon stocking on top and secure it down with rubber band or jar ring.  You'll be adding and pouring water out through the cloth so that the seeds stay in the jar.
2. Add about half a jar of cool tapwater and soak overnight. 
3. The next day, pour off the water (through the cloth) and add new water to rinse.  Pour off the rinsewater to leave the seeds damp but no puddles in the jar.  Roll the jar around the spread out the seeds over the surface of the glass and leave the jar on it's side.
4. Continue to rinse and spread out the seeds daily (or twice a day), leaving the cloth on the whole time.  You'll see the sprouts growing.  
5. By day four or so, the sprouts will be grown and ready.  Put them in the sun for 15 minutes to green them up and activate the phytochemicals.  
6. Enjoy!  You can store them in the fridge and continue eating for several days.

The purpose of rinsing is to keep them damp but prevent any bacteria from growing in the water.  You shouldn't smell a funky smell - if you do, rinse more or keep it somewhere cooler.

Funky Chicken Coop Tour

We spent Saturday morning taking in the eastern half of the Funky Chicken Coop Tour of Austin. We would have loved to see all of it, but ran out of time before we had to get Sammy home for a nap. If you wanted to see a little but couldn't make the tour, you can get a little taste of it by visiting the coops and garden at the Eastside Cafe, which are open for walkthroughs. We also saw the Green Gate Farms, a CSA in east Austin. The pigs and the gigantic rooster in the top two pictures on the left are from there.

It is so neat to see people working chicken ownership into their regular neighborhood backyards. The coops don't smell and the chickens aren't noisy (though a rooster would be). They eat the eggs and enjoy watching the chickens with their funny mannerisms. The owners were so pleasant with the kids and happy to share their methods. One even gave Zack an Americauna egg (the pretty blue ones)! Maybe someday that will be us - we can dream!

Living History

When we were reading Little House in the Big Woods, Zack started asking questions about life at that time - what they had and didn't have, how they did things, etc. James quickly looked up a local living history farm. They were making molasses that day and we had just barely enough time to visit, so we piled right into the car as quickly as possible and headed out there.

The Sauer-Beckmann Farmstead is part of the LBJ historical tour in Johnson City. They have a setup for what life was like in the early 1900's. Although Little House in the Big Woods begins in 1871, there were a lot of things that were similar. There was a food storage area at the farm with braided dried onions and garlic and smoked meats hanging from the ceiling, just as Laura and her family had in their loft. Seeing them in person and smelling the onions made what we had just read seem all the more real. We chased the chickens (sorry, chickens!), saw a day-old calf and petted the mamma cow, climbed on a wagon like they use in the book, watched the horse-powered sorghum press, felt the heat from boiling down the molasses, tasted the sweet sorgham syrup, and quizzed the period-dressed volunteers about their cooking and milk clabbering. There was a tray of homemade lye soap out and examples of clothes and toys children would have had in those times. The small workshop with all the tools reminded me of my grandad's tool shop attached to the barn at their farm in New Mexico.

It was inspiring to me to watch what was being made by hand and the kids enjoyed just running around the farmyard.

If you live in or near Austin, it's worth the drive. Check out this post from a volunteer at the farm for more information and pictures - it's a fun activity, and just enough to see with little ones without being overwhelming.

Family Visit Part 3 - Watermelon Rind Pickles

One recipe my mom made when I was a kid was Watermelon Rind Pickles. It seems a particularly old-timey thing to make, taking the rinds that would be thrown away (or into the compost!) and making them into something edible.

I loooooved those pickles and had begged Mom to make them again for years. They are a bit of a hassle, taking some unusual ingredients and several days of draining/boiling even after the initial cleaning and chopping is done. A while ago she relented and made a batch and sure enough, they were every bit as good as I remembered: sweet, sour and cinnamon-spicy, tasting of times gone by. That batch is long gone and I had gathered the supplies to make a batch of my own. As so often happens to my grand plans, I never quite got to it, but when Mom was here she made some up!

I had a large watermelon, but the rinds have been bred thinner than when we were kids. It still made a nice sized recipe. Even after the cooking down that happens, I ended up with three pints and five half-pints, or 11 half-pints total. The smaller half-pint jars are preferable, as these are a strong, different flavor - kind of like pickles combined with red hot candies!

I was really excited to try them, only to find out that they have to pickle in the jars for two weeks as well. I'm counting the days. Want to count them with me? Better get started then!

Watermelon Rind Pickles
7 lb. watermelon rinds (dark green peels and pink flesh removed)
salt
7 c. sugar
2 c. white vinegar
1/2 t oil of cloves
1/2 t oil of cinnamon

Day 1: Chop rinds. Soak in a strong saltwater solution overnight.
Day 2: Pour off saltwater and boil rinds in fresh water until tender but not soft. Drain. Mix sugar and vinegar. Boil rinds ten minutes in this syrup. Remove from heat and let stand at room temperature overnight.
Day 3: Drain syrup into a saucepan and bring syrup to a boil. Pour back over rinds. Let stand overnight.
Day 4: Drain syrup into a saucepan and bring syrup to a boil. Pour back over rinds. Let stand overnight.
Day 5: Drain syrup into a saucepan and bring syrup to a boil. Add rinds, oil of cloves and oil of cinnamon and boil 10 minutes. Pack in sterile jars and seal.
Allow to pickle two weeks before opening.

Read the tasting results here!

Ready for more chickens?

Ok, are you tired of chicken pictures? Because I'm loving this set. Check out Mr. Zack marching purposefully out to the chickens' area with his little cup of scraps. He really gets a kick out of bringing them "treats".

And after Mom went through the Funky Chicken Coop pictures with me and saw our friends' young son picking up his chickens (he told us each one's name and breed in turn), she decided hers needed a little hands-on treatment as well. So, we've been trying to pick them up a little at a time and get them used to it. We had some comical moments getting ahold of them. Here, Zack got to hold this silky black one. Look how pleased he is! They handed it to me next, but I got her wing kind of scrunched and as I was trying to smooth it back down to her side, she escaped my arms. Missed my photo op!

In Tucson

Here we are! After half a day, Zack's already keen on taking out bit of scraps and treats to the chickens. They are not chicks anymore, but aren't full grown either. They don't lay eggs yet and make sort of babyish chicken sounds. There may be three roosters rather than two, but none of them crow yet. The coop has progressed since the pictures I showed here, but the decorative elements aren't done yet.

The desert is looking especially beautiful today in the stormy light and with the little bits of desert spring. I'm eager to share of photos of that in the coming days too.

The flight (flights, since they got rid of our direct flight) was challenging with two little ones, but it really went as well as I could have hoped. All set for fun with Granny and Grandad!

No, no, thank YOU for keeping it funky

The funky chicken coop tour was great! We saw many backyard coops. These are people who live in city neighborhoods, on regular small city lots. They have coops in the backyard and a few chickens running around as pets. It was all very doable and made us long for some chicken pets of our own! They get some eggs, but mostly have them for the manure for the compost heap and the entertainment of them.

We ran into some friends at one house and they let us come see their coop too (not on the tour). It was really fun to have the chickens running around our feet and watch the young son catch them each in turn to tell us their name and breed and let us pet them (the feathers were really soft and silky!). Just so you know, they were not noisy (no roosters) and not stinky (clean up after them, a little like having a dog, but also change the nesting material) - it seemed a very reasonable amount of upkeep.

I'd love to tell you all about our Easter but it will have to wait until after I pack for our trip. I'll be gone through the end of next week, but I hope to pop in and out with some occasional posts during that time. Happy trails!

Chicks, Coming Right Up!

Since we're headed out on the Funky Chicken Coop Tour of Austin today, I thought I'd show you a chicken coop that's closer to, and farther from, home!

After we started talking about having chickens over Christmas, my mom decided to go for it! Her seven chicks, above, were new in early February. Chickens can be shipped by regular US Mail, but these were local. They lived inside with a little bulb for heat for several weeks, getting a box clean-out every day. Chicks are a little fragile, but they have been doing great!

Meanwhile, Mom built her own chicken coop, almost totally by herself and almost totally from recycled (upcycled!) materials. The exception was new hinges and help from my dad to hang the door. Here it the work in progress in its lovely desert setting. I think it was so cool to have made everything from scraps. I wish I had an ongoing set of descriptions and pictures of the process. She also made the other stuff chickens need, like the feeder below. Mom grew up with chickens and said she didn't remember much about keeping them, but I guess it's coming back to her, becasue between her innate knowledge and a collection of library books, she's all set up now.

And these are the chickens, almost grown up! When you get chicks, you can't tell what mix of hens and roosters you will have. These turned out to be five hens and two roosters, which was great. Mom is planning on giving the roosters away due to the noise factor, but she won't hear of eating them ("I've fed them out of my hand!"). The hens should start laying eggs soon, but they don't lay well in the heat and it's getting hot there. So, there may be a better egg production in the fall. In the meantime, I think they are pets. I need to ask if they have names!

We're excited to see everything next week when we visit, so I think there will be more pictures to come.

Do the Funky Chicken

Is it only Austin that would have a Funky Chicken Coop Tour? We do love to Keep It Weird. Either way, this tour looks cool to me. We hope to go this coming Saturday, and if we do I'll be sure to share some photos here.

We would definitely love to have chickens at our house, but so far it's still not legal for us. People keep telling us it's not legal at all, but actually it just depends on if you have enough space. We don't. I'm thinking that since more urban communities have been changing their laws, it could happen here too.

I never thought I would want to have chickens. I've seen enough of farm life to know it's a lot of work. I prefer to work in the kitchen rather than the field! And have time left to "work" on the computer! But with my recent interest in local and sustainable foods... well, my thinking has shifted a little. And, James is pretty content to divide the labor with me along mutually agreeable lines: You grow it and I'll cook it!

Just before Christmas, James picked up a book on poultry farming. He had gotten it, along with half a dozen more that had been my Grandad's, from my Granny a few years ago. He carried it around with him all during our Christmas trip, reading bits of it to the rest of us (I guess my mom got the bug, because she has since begun a chicken adventure as well. More on that to come, but for now I'll say that chicken coops are a point of family interest these days!). James and I are an unlikely couple of wanna-be-farmers. He's got little experience besides romantic notion of rural life and farming; I have preferred to be inside with a book in hand from toddlerhood on. But we've started with gardening for now and hey, if Austin goes further into the way of the weird, maybe we'll get to add chickens to our lives. Just in case, we'd better go get some funky coop ideas!

Butta!

I'm not kidding: we made butter.

As in started with cream and ended up with butter. As Amy said: it was easy. Are you getting tired of hearing that yet? I have felt no end of surprise at how easy these things are to do, things that I had assumed were only really practical for industrial processing. (Easy individually - I'm glad we don't have to always do all of them!)

This took all of 10 minutes. Not even 10 minutes (apparently letting the cream come to room temperature first makes it much faster). I had very little to do with it, as Daddy and Zack were each too anxious for their turn and it was done very quickly.

Homemade Butter
-Put heavy whipping cream (any amount) in a jar or food processor and let it come to room temperature (2 hours).
-Shake (or process) until it turns into butter (5 to 10 minutes).
-Pour of the milk (drink it or whatever) and rinse butter in cold water.

Uh, yeah. That's it.

The cream first looks like whipped cream, then "siezes" into butter and throws off the watery milk. It looks a little like cottage cheese at first but just shake more and it comes together in a lump (can you see the lump of butter in the jar?). Then you can rinse and knead it until the water runs clear to make it keep longer. We rinsed it, but really, we just made a little and then we were all too quick to devour it.

We made it into strawberry butter (gee, strawberries, really?) and put it on homemade biscuits. Mmmmmm, homemade biscuits. Yuuuuummmmy. Recipe tomorrow! (Sorry, I've just got to get to some chores around here!)

Strawberries Galore

[If you're here from Kiddio's Kid-Craft Jamboree, welcome! The Fruit Leather recipe is all the way at the bottom and it's a great spring activity with the little ones!]

After the strawberry picking, we had lots of strawberries to deal with. Zack was so tired and so sniffly when we arrived home and he desperately needed a nap. Before going to sleep he asked, then clarified, then asked me to repeat back to him that HE could do the strawberries. I tried to opt for his doing some of the strawberries, but that was not what he was looking for. Since it was supposed to be a fun project for him, I agreed that I would only "get ready" and leave the actual doing for him. I had originally thought that the berries would keep until the next day, but after the ride home and with the mud from the field on them, there was no way they were going to keep. So I got ready doing the prep. The washing was the most time-consuming and challenging step of this whole thing. The mud and sand were crusted in around all the seeds and it was only through floating them in multiple baths of water (hey! another great use for the salad spinner!) and scrubbing each with my fingertips that they got clean.

After being out in the sun, and also due to his sniffles, Zack slept a loooong time. I had thought to leave some of each step for him to try (like being in a cooking show, ha!), but the washing had to get done and it wasn't really practical for him anyway. After the first attempted wakeup I started hulling. I finally woke him again and explained that I would have to go ahead with the strawberries now, but if he wanted to sleep that was ok. He was groggy, but insisted on helping, so he drug himself around to sit and drink some juice. He must have been a little dehydrated (we had water with us, really) because after getting some liquid he was ready to go.

As I mentioned, I wasn't really planning to buy so much fruit, so I had to figure out what it was we were actually doing. While he was sleeping I chose two projects for us: jam and fruit leather. I wrote the jam recipe out in easy-read form so that he could read it (with help). It was a simple recipe - fruit, pectin, a teensy bit of butter, lemon juice, and sugar. I had pectin from a failed jelly attempt a few years ago or I wouldn't have been able to do this on a whim - lucky! I keep canning jars to house occasional gifts, but I've never "canned". I usually just put granola in them and had never tried the sterilizing part. After two cookbooks and three calls to my mother, I had a plan. The sterilizing is rather easy - just like everything else lately, I'm discovering that a lot of intimidating stuff is not so intimidating and doesn't necessarily need special equipment.

Zack was our official strawberry crusher and boy was it a good job for him! This part is done before the heat is even on, so it was nice to let him just go at it. I thought we wouldn't have enough strawberries to make up two quarts into jam... but the first quart barely made a dent so we made the full two quart recipe.

Zack had to step back for the jam pouring - boiling water, boiling hot jars and boiling sugar just aren't kid friendly. But he was excited to see the consistency and color change as the fruit cooked down into syrupy goodness. After pouring it up we had nine jars of jam!

One by one, we heard the lids suction in with a -pop!- and create the final seal - so cool! After we had it poured, James (my own personal naysayer- harrumph!) wondered out loud if it would set up, considering the original project for which the pectin was purchased hadn't. Gasp! I had not even thought of such and hated to think of our beautiful project failing! Late into the evening, the jelly was still liquid and I was worried, but by morning it was a (loose) jelly consistency. And YUMMY!

Meanwhile, we moved on to fruit leather. This had sounded great last week, and what do you know, it was easy too. It's pureed fruit with applesauce, lemon juice and a little sugar. Zack spread it on a plastic lined tray and we left it in a very low oven for five hours (yes, this meant getting up in the middle of the night to turn the oven off - James more than made up for his naysaying moment by doing this little chore!).

When I cut it the next day, it was still too soft in the center. I put it back in, but then forgot to watch it closely (I was reading this interview - who can blame me!) so the very outside edges got more crispy than leathery. I broke them off and ate them. The rest is wrapped into fruit leathers for Zack to discover a little later.

There were still strawberries left, but it was after Zack's bedtime so I send him to bed and made a set of popsicles, smoothies for me and the hard-working hubby, and still had plenty left for eating. Wow! I have to say, this seemed like a homemade extravaganza. Even with each piece being easy, it still added up to a lot of time on our feet actually doing it. It was fun but I don't need to repeat it right away. As we went to bed I couldn't help reflecting to James that all these prairie-cool adventures add up a lot of time. How did people possibly manage all these things? Well, they didn't spend the next day blogging about it I guess!

----------------------------------------
Here is that promised recipe!

Fruit Leather

4 c. fresh strawberries (or a little less)
1 T lemon juice
1 c applesauce
1/4 c sugar

Puree the berries (it will make about 2 c. puree) and add the other ingredients.
Line a 10x15 in jelly roll pan with plastic wrap. Pour puree into the pan and spread evenly.
Bake about 5 hours at 200F or until leather pulls away from wrap.
Cut into slices, roll and wrap each in plastic.

Let me know if you make it, or what other fruits you are making into leather!

I went to check out a new grocery that opened up in South Austin, Newflower Market (I see from the website that this is the same as Sunflower Market in the southwest) after getting sales circulars with some pretty fantastic specials (which were then matched by special "this store only" sales at the nearest HEB). It is mostly fresh items - a large area of produce with a meat counter and some small aisles of mostly organic dry goods. I liked it. There was a lot of organic produce (as an aside, there is an interesting list of good foods to buy organic here), some of it for very good prices. I wish I could remember normal prices for more items, though, because on a lot of things I just wasn't sure.

I was wandering around the store just looking at stuff when a woman asked me about storing ginger. I passed along the really handy tip of peeling it (just scrape with the edge of a spoon) and storing it in the freezer to grate as needed. I ran into the same woman at organic eggs as we compared the price to that at Costco (the same), then again at yogurt. She told me how she makes her own fruit roll-ups / fruit leather by just blending up the fruit, adding applesauce and a bit of sugar, and drying it in the oven! I was telling her how easy it is to make yogurt. I am excited to try fruit leather and she's anxious to be able to make her own yogurt since her son has some allergy issues and she can customize it to him. It was pretty fun to chat with someone interested in exploring making stuff from scratch. I wish I'd gotten her email address or blog address or whatever she has... I bet she know some other cool tips!

Now I'm excited to make fruit leather. James' parents want to go strawberry picking next week. Maybe a good time to try it out?

And while were talking about all this homemade stuff, check out this post on making butter. Butter! Seriously!

And ok, this term "prairie-cool" cracks me up so I'm adopting it. Ta-da, it's a category.

Mmm, Ranchy.

We love Ranch at our house. Well, Zack loves Ranch at our house. I love Ranch at restaurants. Why is it always soooo much better at restaurants? Maybe this is a little strange, but whenever I bring leftovers home from Chili's, I have them bring me a little to-go cup of Ranch too. Our bottled versions from the fridge just can't compare. I've switched brands but it doesn't help. They aren't as good as the restaurant ones. I've asked at restaurants what they use but even at Chili's, they make it in-house. I had tried making Ranch from a little packet and it was fine, but it wasn't great.

Then Friday, I was at a friend's house flipping through a cookbook at noticed how many dressing recipes were in it. So I decided to try it from scratch. I said it about applesauce and I'll say it again: well, duh. It is not hard at all. I don't know why I thought it would be. There aren't that many ingredients. I used fresh parsley, well, just to use some up. But the recipe called for dried so even if I hadn't had fresh I would have had everything on hand. I thought the recipe was a little heavy on mayo taste (I love mayo, but Ranch shouldn't taste quite that much like mayo). If I fine-tune it, I'll post the recipe.

Even so, there isn't much of this batch left! Mmmmm....

Crisis Averted

I ran out of applesauce.

This is a disaster of epic proportions around here. And probably a sign that I need a Mommy-Time-Out (which I really do). I was wracking my brain for when I could possibly get to the store when I thought, "I wonder if it's very hard to make applesauce." Well, I have to say: DUH. Not only is it not hard, it very easy.

I had three big organic apples. I peeled, cored and chopped them coarsely, then boiled them with 1/3. c water for eight minutes. Into the blender and out came applesauce - a little less than 2.5 cups. I feel a little silly not realizing how easy this was. On the other hand, I looked at the price of applesauce and I only barely broke even on the cost of buying organic applesauce. Tastes good, though!

Sammy-food Making Time

Any babyfood makers out there?

It's Sammy-food making time at my house. Sometimes I do a bit of it every couple days, but this is the operation if I do it all at once (start merry-go-round music audio and jerky fast film video):

Peel and cut carrots (or winter squash, or sweet potatoes) in half. Add water, cover and microwave several minutes until tender. Meanwhile, boil peas in one pot and green beans in another. Grind 1 cup of grains (I use 1/4c. scoop each of millet, quinoa, cracked wheat and oats) in a coffee grinder (one I don't use for coffee). Move cooked peas to the blender (a Vita-Mix, I love that thing!), with a few set aside for finger foods. Boil two cups of water in the now free pot and stir in grains. Simmer on low ten minutes. Meanwhile, mix half yogurt and half applesauce and portion out into bowls. Add cooked green beans to the Vita-Mix (a few set aside for finger foods) and puree with the peas. Mix green veggies with cooked cereal. Portion some into bowls and store the rest half in fridge and half in freezer. Puree carrots, mix with cereal, portion some into bowls and store half in fridge and half in freezer. Cut any soft fruits and veggies I have around into finger foods and portion into bowls. Voila! Baby food for a week and more in the freezer!

By the time I cook, puree, portion and store the food and clean up my two pots and one plate (and the Vita-Mix, but that doesn't count because the almost non-existent cleanup time is the best thing about that particular appliance) it takes me about an hour (or more if I'm reading blogs in between!).

I do like making Sammy's food. Sometimes it is a hassle, but it's something easy I can do to add more homemade to our lives. I like not thinking I have to have something industrially processed and prepackaged. I like being able to use organics for less money and cutting down on the packaging for the little baby portions. I DO buy baby food - I keep some bought food in our bag in case - I'm definitely not opposed to it. But this is something that fits into our lives right now and once I get a rhythm going, it goes pretty quickly. There are some cookbooks about this out there, so I'm not the only one! Anyone with tips to share?

Farm Day

We spent some time today checking out a couple of farms around Austin. I had been looking at the Local Harvest website for information on community supported agriculture, a interest that began for me with the book Food Politics (still only half-way through it, but it's an eye-opener) and this article, an open letter to the then-unchosen next president from the New York Times (or check out the extended audio interview from NPR).

In looking on the Local Harvest website I was excited to see a farm just two and a half miles from downtown, Boggy Creek Farm. They have harvest days on Wednesdays and Saturdays so we decided to go check it out. It's right in east Austin, in the midst of an eclectic and in some places run-down neighborhood. The fields are smallish (for a farm - much bigger than our little garden spot!) and in separate sections. We walked around from one to another, letting Zack run around, checking out the crops, and generally enjoying the warm, overcast day.

The chicken coop had quite a lot of birds, but by the time we got to the market stand, they didn't have any eggs. We did buy a little fresh produce. I wanted some goat's milk (local, from Pure Luck Farm and Dairy in Dripping Springs), but I think James was worried it would be a little wonky, so we passed on that for this time. Hopefully I'll manage to make something interesting enough with our purchases to report on it later!

Next, we checked out Johnson's Backyard Garden, a slightly larger operation a littler further out of town. A friend of mine subscribes to their weekly half-bushel box of seasonal produce and loves it. I've been on the waiting list, but according to their website they expect to be able to add subscribers for spring. We wanted to see the area before we decided. They have 20 acres and larger equipment, but it's a small, local operation. The produce that my friend has shared with me in the past has always been excellent and varied. It's a little bit of pressure to figure out how to fix whatever arrives, but it's exciting too. I need to talk to James, but I think we're going to do it.

After all that, James wanted to drive through the area looking at land for sale and wishing. So we did, and ended up in Lockhardt for barbecue lunch: no sauce, no plates, no forks. I guess I'm not a barbecue purist, because I missed the sauce, but the food was good. Clearly, my boys enjoyed it!

Yogurt Results

Our milk turned into yogurt!

Wow, this was really really easy. I thought the process was more involved, but not so. The milk is heated to sterilize then cooled to a warm temperature. You add some existing yogurt and let it sit in a warm place. That's ALL!

It tastes good, the texture is thick and creamy... pretty cool stuff!

(For the record, I'm not claiming I'm going to make all our yogurt from now on. I might not. Just saying.)

If you want the detailed instructions, check out this site.

Adventures in Yogurt

On Monday, James came come asking if we could make yogurt and reciting detailed instructions, complete with temperatures in Celcius. His Indian coworker had come back from a long visit home asking if James has some yogurt starter he could borrow. When James said we'd never made yogurt, and that he didn't even know you could make yogurt at home, the coworker told him exactly how to do it.

I have wanted to try this, but either I was a little intimidated, or I thought James would think it was insane to eat milk that has been sitting out warm for hours, or I just never got around to it. Some combination, I guess. But James wanted to try it, so here we are!

We buy plain yogurt anyway for Sammy's food, and ever since Zack turned into a Wild Thing I've been making up plain yogurt with fruit for him too (just what I need, one more item to do before I can go to bed every night!). In fact, it seems like I can't keep enough yogurt in the house. I was just at the end of the large carton (that I bought yesterday) and wishing I'd bought two, even though I had to buy the even more expensive organic brand because my usual expensive organic brand was out of stock. So, we used the end of that carton for starter on our experiment. It wasn't difficult at all. Could it be that this would be sustainable enough that I could keep us in yogurt with minimal purchases???

Expect a report on sucess or failure in the morning!

For now, I've got to go cheer against OU.